Originally Posted by
exwannabe
That is incorrect.
DL is overselling Y, and part of the logic for this is based on upgrades and op-ups.
If somebody bought all 7 F seats, then they now know Y will not get the upgrades so they will reduce Y inventory.
It is also possible there are more than 7 F seats available. It would not stun me if JFK/LAX held a few back in order to score the very expensive last second F (BE) seats.
It's a complicated process, and nobody outside DL will know exactly how it works (though I am certain many know the general concepts).
Good points - the inventory is so dynamic it is virtually impossible to know exactly how many seats are available after any given query. It is also important to think about the authorized vs actual numbers to which we don't have access. That is the total number of seats authorized for sale vs the actual seats on the plane - those can be very different numbers.
Using the above example there are likely fewer than 12 seats available on the plane but they are willing to sell at least 5 reservations in Y and have a total of 7 seats in F. It very will could be that the current available numbers are F7 Y0 but they are willing to oversell coach by an additional 5 reservations (Y could already be over by, say X so you would have a total available on the aircraft of F-(X+5)).